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The agreement was aimed at creating a unified Ukrainian state, a movement long-awaited by the intelligentsia on both sides.[5] However, the Act Zluky was regarded as purely symbolic in that both governments still retained their own separate armies, administrations and government structure.[5]

To mark the 71st anniversary of the signing of the Act Zluky in 1990, over 300,000 Ukrainians[8] created a human chain (approx. 482 km (300 mi))[8] from the capital Kiev to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on 21 January 1990.[9][10][11] The chain, the largest public demonstration in Ukraine since the beginning of Glasnost,[8] was funded by the People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) and was partly inspired by the Baltic Way which had taken place the previous year.[8] Also, for the first time since the period of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the blue and yellow national flag was raised.[12]

On 21 January 1999, the President of UkraineLeonid Kuchma decreed the "Day of Reunion of Ukraine" (Ukrainian: День Соборностi України, romanized: Den’ Sobornosti Ukrayiny), a government holiday, celebrated every year on 22 January [13] to mark the political and historical significance of the 1919 agreement.[2] It is not a public holiday.[4] In December 2011, President Viktor Yanukovych caused public controversy when he merged the "Day of Freedom" into this day,[11][14][15] naming it officially the "Day of Unity and Freedom of Ukraine" (Ukrainian: День Соборності та Свободи України, Den’ Sobornosti ta Svobody Ukrayiny).[16] The "Day of Freedom" was created in 2005 by President Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych's opponent, to be celebrated on 22 November in commemoration of the Orange Revolution.[17] President Yanukovych stated he changed the day of celebration because of "numerous appeals from the public".[14] Mid-October 2014 President Petro Poroshenko undid Yanukovych's merging when he decreed that 21 November will be celebrated as "Day of Dignity and Freedom" in honour of the Euromaidan-protests that started on 21 November 2013.[18]